Dear Sir, I take this opportunity to introduce APPLESOFT as software premier for Indian languages. It dedicates its work to research on software which enables a lay man use computers and other allied information technology gadgets in his own language. Its prime focus has been on software in areas of Indian Languages which are of immense value for the masses and has a direct bearing on proliferation of information technology to the masses in society.
>From what started as providing software solutions for Indian languages on >computers, it has diversified its area to cover almost the entire spread of >digital media and includes neo IT gadgets of the sort of Pagers, Mobile >phones, PDAs, Set top boxes etc. The experience gained over the years has >positioned APPLESOFT as leader in IT for Indian Languages. Unlike many other software companies, Applesoft came into being more than a decade ago and was set up during January 1990 with the motto of developing technologies to promote Indian Languages on digital media. Over the years since its inception, it has concentrated its research efforts on development of software for Indian languages and has conceptualized several unique products. Having started its research on MS DOS and MS Windows platform, the Applesoft team has made sufficient foray into these and related areas. Of all Applesoft's contributions and products, Janani and Localiser are allied products which are innovations by itself and first of its kind in the market. Janani, a remarkable achievement is a result of extensive research in the field of Indian language computing which is only one of its kind in the area of localisation. Janani runs in the background and translates all menus, dialogs and system generated messages of the international version of MS Windows 98 and other applications which run on it to Tamil. Even though this technology has been implemented with Tamil, the technology has been designed with multilingual requirement and can meet the requirements of other Indian languages. Localiser, yet another indigenously developed software to localize all text based resources of a software. It thus enables translate all menus, dialogs and system generated messages of that software to Tamil. These innovations have enabled a user who does not know English to use computers, app lications and the related technology which was hither to a forbidden area for a person with working knowledge of Indian Language alone. Applesoft is the only one in the area of software for Indian languages which boasts of several products to its credit. The list includes: (a) SURABHI : ‘Software only’ Indian Language interface to use all text based software (like WS, dbase, Lotus 1-2-3 etc) on MS DOS. (b). Surabhi GEM : Direct typing interface for DTP applications like Ventura Gem. (c). Surabhi Professional : Direct typing interface for MS Windows 3.1. (d) SuBase : dbase compatible database management software with feature to sort and transliterate Indian Language database. (e) SURABHI 2000 : Indian Languages typing software working on Windows 95/98/2000/XP and is widely used in Schools, Polytechnics, Govt offices in Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Singapore and Malaysia. Supports standard keyboard layouts and TTF. (f). Surabhi UV : Indian Language typing software for Unicode aware applications on MS Windows 2000/XP. (g) SENTHAMIZH : Multimedia software with interactive language games (3 Volumes) : Being used in all schools of Singapore and some schools in Tamilnadu to teach Tamil. (h) TAMILCHUDAR : Interactive Multimedia Tamil learning software to teach/learn higher order skills of Tamil Language (Two volumes). (i) TAMIL ULAGAM : Interactive Integrated Multimedia software developed for Govt of Tamilnadu to Teach or Learn Tamil for Non-Tamils (Two volumes). (j) SHAKTHIMAN : Multimedia based CBT software for Indian Army School of Mechanical Transport. (k) WinThamizh : A project of Tamilnadu Government which enables user interfaces of select utility software of Windows 95/98. (l) VISAITHAMIZH : An interactive user friendly Tamil 99 keyboard tutor. (m) THAMIZHTHENDRAL : An Interactive Multimedia software developed to Teach or Learn Tamil for Non-Tamils for University of Michigan, USA. (n) E-TYPE : An embedding font technology to embed Indian Language fonts into Pagers, Mobile Phones, Dot Matrix Printers etc. (o) SUJEEVA : An interactive web content enabling utility for Indian Languages. (p) SURABHI Tools : A collection of plug-ins for MS Office and IE. (q) Aatral : A plug in for Tamil learning exercises in MS Word. (r) MyCliparts : Collection of Indian Cliparts. (s). Janani : Runtime localiser for MS Windows 98. (t). Localiser Studio : A collection of Utilities to capture, create and translate the resources of running application on MS Windows 98. (u). Nannool : Tamil spellchecker alongwith related utilities. Applesoft has to its credit of having developed several allied technologies in the area of Indian Language computing: · Antialiasing fonts. · Vernacular interface to MS DOS. · Vernacular interface to MS Windows 98. · Multilingual keyboard Manager. · Generic Code Conversion. The key projects that Applesoft has handled includes: 1. Voters ID card. 2. Multilingual Pager. 3. Shaktiman. 4. Tamil Ulagam. 5. Tamil Thendral. 6. Janani. Applesoft has a dedicated customer base spread across India and abroad apart from a dedicated dealer / distributor network. In India, various Government departments have been prime customers for products from Applesoft and have summarily been using them. The huge list runs to over 50 departments across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka predominantly and includes organizations like: International Institute of Tamil studies, Tamil Virtual University, ASMT, BEL, University of Michigan etc. It also has offshore customers and are based at USA, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Applesoft's products for Tamil has a well established user base at Singapore. Applesoft has established a leadership for products in Tamil and Kannada languages. Applesoft may be contacted at the address furnished below: APPLESOFT # 39, 1st Cross, 1st Main Shiva Nagar, West of Chord Road Bangalore - 560 010, India Tele : 080-23386167, 23357167 TeleFax : 080-23357167 E-mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] With the above introduction to APPLESOFT, we come forward to proliferate the use of open software and open standards by distributing the CD ROMs of OpenOffice.Org 2.0. It may not be out of context to mention that APPLESOFT has distributed StarOffice (during its FREEWARE stage) in the exhibitions participated by APPLESOFT and to many departments of Govt of Karnataka. With this experience we want to take further the cause Indian Languages and Open source software. Hence we request you to consider APPLESOFT as one of the distributor for OpenOffice.Org 2.0 (for Tamil and Kannada localised versions and English version). In anticipation of your positive reply, N. Anbarasan CEO APPLESOFT
